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Today, a bipartisan group of Senators just released their principles for an immigration reform plan to create a roadmap to citizenship for Americans without papers. [1] And tomorrow, President Obama will outline his vision for immigration reform.

For the first time in years, politicians from BOTH parties are working together on serious immigration reform plans.

Anti-immigrant extremists are in a panic and have begun flooding Congress with messages to try to kill this momentum. We can’t let this loud, anti-immigrant fringe shape the debate.

Please tell your Members of Congress: the time is NOW to create a roadmap to citizenship for all 11 million Americans without papers. Our community demands that they don’t stop until immigration reform is signed into law.

It is critical that we keep the momentum going and remind leaders that our community demands action now.

The Senate principles include a roadmap to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. without papers – this core element would protect this community from deportation and lead to full equality.

The fight is far from over. It’s up to us to keep fighting for every family, pushing for an end to the excessive and senseless enforcement practices and making sure that this roadmap to citizenship is clear, direct, and straightforward. Any proposal that makes citizenship nearly impossible or requires waiting in a generations-long line will be a non-starter.

Please tell Congress: the time for a straightforward roadmap to citizenship is now — and we demand that you deliver.

Last night, Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012. That means middle-class families won’t see an increase in their income tax rates. We’ve avoided the fiscal cliff.

President Obama will sign the legislation soon. Last night, he described the agreement as, “one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy and broaden opportunity for everybody.

Watch this video that President Obama recorded about the “fiscal cliff” agreement: http://OFA.BO/UpngYM

I just got this email from Demand Progress, and I thought you should know about it: It highlights an upcoming Supreme Court case that will affect all of us, especially people who sell things online.

We’ve told you about the crazy Supreme Court case that could make it illegal for you to sell the things that you own.Well, the court hearing is set for this Monday, October 29th — and we need you to join us in a day of online activism.
If we lose this fight, practically anybody who wants to resell products they bought — from Macbooks and iPhones to our clothing and textbooks — will have to ask copyright holders for permission first. And they’ll have the right to deny it!The forces that lined up in support of SOPA — Hollywood, the recording industry, and other huge corporations — are urging the Court to rule against consumers.So we’re going to fight back — just like during the SOPA fight — by using our websites to sound the alarm. Please click here to sign up to take part!Here’s a screenshot of what we’re talking about:Remarkably few people have even heard about this case, and it’s time for us to change that.
Win or lose at the Supreme Court, we expect to have a legislative fight about this issue on our hands by January, and we need to push people to contact their members of Congress before Big Business gets them to side against us.So we’ve built a variety of ribbons and ball-and-chain icons that you can put on your site on Monday to help make sure the whole world knows about this horrendous case.You can view them all here, and sign up to use your site for activism on Monday — we really need your help.
Participation from a few hundred sites — or even a few dozen — is almost certain to get the media’s attention as they cover the Supreme Court hearing.Everybody is welcome to join in the day of action, but your friends who sell things online will probably be especially interested. Whether they use Craigslist, Ebay, Etsy, or just a personal site or a blog, they’ll want to know that their right to keep selling could be in grave jeopardy.
Will you forward them this email and/or use these links to make sure they know about this lawsuit?

Paid for by Demand Progress (DemandProgress.org) and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

The need to keep pressing Congress on behalf of working class Americans to raise the minimum wage remains urgent. At just $7.25 an hour, or roughly $15,000 per year, the current federal minimum wageis leaving millions of hard working Americans in poverty.

While we continue to work with Senator Tom Harkin and key allies to push the issue in the U. S. Senate, a key member of the House Democratic Leadership – Representative George Miller from California– just introduced parallel legislation on the House side that increases the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 by 2014 then indexes it to inflation thereafter. He has asked his colleagues in the House to co-sponsor the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012.

It is crucial for us to generate support for Representative Miller’s effort because it will provide broader momentum for increasing the minimum wage in both chambers of Congress.

He has worked for the betterment of our district. When the administration was prepared to compromise on the budget by cutting funding for college loans, he rallied others in Congress to refuse the deal and protected low-income students from losing an opportunity to get an education.

State Representative District 40

Agustin Hernandez

The best candidate is Agustin Hernandez, his reasoning for running and his proposals on his website are very convincing and well thought out.

As I was doing research for this I am looking these people up. I have met most of them, Mr Betancourt doesn’t even have a website or it is hard to find. Terry Canalez is an attorney with no real experience or valuable convincing reason being elected. Robert Pena has the experience, he was in a school district and has been part of several business organizations, he would be the candidate that would most likely care for business interest most of all.

Referendum #1 – FOR

Reads:

Any graduate of a Texas high school, who has lived in the state for at least three years and lived here continuously for the last year, should be eligible for in-state tuition at state supported colleges and universities and given the opportunity to earn legal status through a higher education or military service.

If these students did the work, made the grades, and have lived in Texas for a long time they should be able to go to college. When they graduate, they would become great additions to our state. If they are going to college they are not criminals. Education should be a universal right

Referendum #2 – FOR

Reads:

Because a college education is increasingly necessary for jobs that allow our citizens to achieve middle class lifestyles and become the entrepreneurs who create the jobs that our economy relies on, we call on the Texas Legislature to fund colleges and universities such that tuition and fees can be affordable to all Texans.

Education is a social equalizer and helps people greatly increase their ability to progress. Students are graduating with greater amounts of debt.

The Texas legislature cut a lot of money to education last year in the 2011 congressional session. Colleges have been affected; they have had to cut down the number of teacher and other areas of school which affects students.

We need to invest in our education to have better inventors, teachers, doctors, scientists, etc. That will bring progress to our state and country.

Referendum #3 – FOR

Reads

Should the Texas Legislature allow the people of Texas to vote to legalize casino gambling with all funds generated being used only for education?

We need to keep the money in Texas, people gamble when they do they have to go spend all that money in Las Vegas or other locations, we should keep the money here.

The money needed to support our education system needs to come from somewhere and since corporations don’t want to pay taxes some institution must.

It absence of the Legislature’s willingness to provide needed income to the State, this is an alternative that should be acceptable.